Sensible Shoes: Somewhere south of 20 grand there's a sweet spot of cheap miles and wide smiles. Are we there yet?

What's not to like about combining frugality with fun? Nissan's all-new-for-2007 Sentra comes standard with a six-speed manual. Let's round up the whole class of compact four-doors, equip them with all-natural U-shift-'em gearboxes, and enjoy driving while we compare choices at the low-budget end of the market.

There's action once again in the small-car biz. Gas-pinched motorists are climbing down from their SUVs with mpg on their minds. At the same time, carmakers have introduced three new models. Besides the long-overdue Sentra, value-brand Hyundai is back with a fresh Elantra — "all new from headlight to taillight," the company says. When the same company did all-new about a year ago, the thoroughly delightful Sonata hit the street, leading us to have high expectations for the Elantra.

Just off the boat from Germany is — ta-da! — the Volkswagen Rabbit. Seriously, folks, the Beetle brand is making another grab for cuddly. Okay, the last VW Rabbit (b. 1975, d. 1984) lived an inglorious life. Actually, the cars rusted out so quickly you're supposed to have forgotten by now. So Volkswagen is running the exact same play again. The compact hatchback known in Germany as the Golf will be renamed the Rabbit for the U.S. market. One difference: This time there's no plan for a U.S. assembly plant. A 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine is standard equipment, 25 percent more cylinders than any other in the class.

The big names in small cars are, of course, Honda and Toyota. The Honda Civic was all-new and radical for 2006. With only minor changes for 2007 it remains radical, having the lowest roofline in the class and a daringly aerodynamic silhouette. Toyota's Corolla, on the other hand, is the senior citizen of this group, little changed since its last major redesign for 2003.

Playing opposite the Corolla — imagine a character acting as the un-Toyota — is usually something from Mazda, which purposefully infuses a spring into the step of its models, a bright-line contrast to the buttoned-down-and-tucked-in personality of Toyotas. Our Mazda 3 for this meeting packs a 2.3-liter four rated at 156 horsepower, making it the most powerful player on the field.

Good so far. Unfortunately, our plan for fun with gear levers fetched up against cruel reality in Detroit. The domestics sell so few manual cars that we were unable to find test samples, even in the manufacturers' own fleets. That meant no Chevy Cobalt, the newest American entry in the class, and no Ford Focus, an oldie for sure but also a five-time 10Best Cars winner.

Reality prevails, too, in the as-tested prices of our samples. Keep them under $18,000 — that was the target. Hyundai gets the frugality prize, nicely equipped at $16,295, with the Toyota Corolla just $58 higher. Regrettably, the Mazda, Nissan, and VW examples here carried combinations of equipment that bumped them well into the $18,000 range.

But never mind. We've got 31 speeds forward, divided among six compact sedans, and we're going to test the whee out of 'em. C'mon.